Extra Compassion Please

With the tensions from Ferguson spilling on to my Facebook feed, I keep thinking that what we all need is even more compassion for people different from us.  As a woman, I really don’t like it when a man thinks he understands my challenges or perspectives.  There is no way for him to completely “get it”. It’s not his fault, it’s simply biology.  I don’t completely “get” his experience either.  I feel the same way about race, religion, profession, etc.  I bet our children feel the same way about age.  We can ask them, do you like it when I think I know exactly what it is like to be your age in 2014?  Do you think I can completely “get” your experience?  If they don’t think we can, compare that to what it’s like to be a different race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.  Should we jump to conclusions or make snap judgments when we don’t really “get it”?  Or should we do as Stephen Covey suggests, and seek first to understand then to be understood? Compassion starts with realizing your experience is different from mine and neither of the experiences is better than the other.